Convex Public Licence ("CPL") v0.9
This license is intended to support the open development of software within the Convex ecosystem, with two primary objectives:
A) Enable Open Source development and usage of systems based on Convex technology B) Ensure effective governance of economic systems and networks based on Convex technology
As such the license has been written based on the following principles:
- It is a "weak copyleft" open source license, similar in spirit to the Eclipse Public License. Derivative Works and any Contributions must be released under the same license. However, you may link and utilise the Work from software using a different license, including use as a library for commercial and proprietary software.
- It is intended to support good governance of the decentralised Convex network, and therefore gives certain governance powers to a Governing Body (at time of writing the non-profit Convex Foundation). The Governing Body, in turn, is expected to use these powers to serve the interests of the whole ecosystem.
"Licence" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction, and distribution as defined by this document.
"Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorised by the copyright owner that is granting the Licence.
"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity exercising permissions granted by this License.
"Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications, including but not limited to software source code, documentation source, and configuration files.
"Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical transformation or translation of a Source form, including but not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation, and conversions to other media types.
"Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work (an example is provided in the Appendix below).
"Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of, the Work and Derivative Works thereof. For the avoidance of doubt, a software product that uses the Work as a library is not considered a derivative work, even if the distribution of such software includes a copy of the Work.
"Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner or by an individual or Legal Entity authorised to submit on behalf of the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems, and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."
"Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and subsequently incorporated within the Work.
"Legal Entity" shall mean any of:
- An individual
- A legally established company or organisation in any jurisdiction
- The union of the acting entity and all other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition, "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
- A decentralised entity operating either autonomously or under the control of one or more Legal Entities.
"Distribute" means the acts of a) distributing or b) making available in any manner that enables the transfer of a copy.
"Economic Assets" shall mean entities with economic or commercial value, or from which economic or commercial value may be derived, through the exercise of partial or exclusive control. An Economic Asset may be entirely digital, a legal right, an asset that exists in the physical world, or any combination of these.
"Decentralised Economic System" shall mean any system where any of the following are true:
- Consensus over some information of economic interest is determined between two or more Legal Entities
- Economic Assets are under the control of two or more Legal Entities
- Transactions are executed that represent exchange of value between two or more Legal Entities
"Public Utility Network" shall mean a network of systems managing information, communication or economic assets which is generally available for public access, e.g. via the Internet.
"Convex Network" shall mean the union of all systems using the Work as part of a Public Utility Network or operating a Decentralised Economic System.
"Operator" shall mean any legal entity running a system using this Work, whether as part of the Convex Network or otherwise.
"Originator" shall mean the original author of the Convex software, Michael Richard Anderson, who established to Convex Foundation to further the goals of building effective decentralised economic systems. For the purposes of this License, the Originator is also considered a Contributor.
"Governance Body" shall mean the Legal Entity legally authorised by the Originator to administer governance decisions relating to the Work, which as of October 2024 is the Convex Foundation.
"Convex Network Governance Rules" shall mean the set of rules established and updated from time to time by the Governance Body for the secure, equitable and efficient operation of the Convex Network. The current version shall be made publicly available by the Governance Body, at time of writing here.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, and distribute the Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.
You may distribute the Work (or Derivative Work) under this Licence, provided that:
- The Work (or Derivative Work) must also be made available as Source Code, and You must accompany the Program with a statement that the Source Code for the Program is available under this Agreement, and informs Recipients how to obtain it in a reasonable manner on or through a medium customarily used for software exchange.
- The Work (or Derivative Work) must be distributed either under this license, or a later version of this license formally approved by the Governance Body.
- You agree that any change you make to the Work shall be considered a Contribution.
If you utilise the Work in a Decentralised Economic System, you warrant that that this system will be operated in accordance with the Convex Network Governance Rules. This term applies whether or not you have made any modifications to the Work.
Unless You explicitly state otherwise, any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of this Licence, without any additional terms or conditions. Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
This Licence does not grant permission to use the trade names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor, except as required for reasonable and customary use including, but not limited to, describing the origin of the Work and reproducing the content of any NOTICE file.
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this Licence.
In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
While redistributing the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer, and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity, or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this Licence. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf of any other Contributor or Operator, and only if You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold each Contributor or Operator harmless for any liability incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor or Operator by reason of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.
Contributor grants to the Governing Body a perpetual, worldwide, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable right to re-distribute Contributions under any license, including future revisions of this license, providing that such license is formally approved by the Governing Body. The Governing Body will ensure that this Work is always free and open source for anyone to use within the Convex ecosystem.
Licensee acknowledges and agrees that their use of the Work (directly or indirectly) may include the execution of transactions on a public, decentralised network, and as such they agree to the following:
- Transactions that they execute may be publicly visible, including any personal information contained therein.
- Contracts may be executed according to rules defined by software code either deployed to the Network or as part of the execution logic encoded within this Work.
- Access to or control of digital assets and other economically valuable systems may depend on cryptographic keys and signatures, and it is the responsibility of Licensee to ensure that such keys are properly secured. Not your keys, not your crypto.
Licensee accepts full responsibility for the consequences of executing transactions on such a network, and authorises Operators of the network to carry out execution as described here.
If Licensee executes transactions or facilitates such execution on behalf of a third party, it is the responsibility of Licensee to ensure that any such party agrees to these terms, and Licensee shall fully indemnify Contributors and Operators against any consequences of a failure to do so.
The Governing Body may, at its sole and absolute discretion, make awards of Convex Coins for Contributions to the Work. To be eligible for such awards, Contributor agrees to sign a Contributor Agreement which may be made available separately from this License.
Copyright The Originator 2018-2021, Convex Foundation 2021-2024. Includes terms adapted from the Apache 2.0 License and Eclipse Public License v2.0